Alright, back on the fence we go...

As the entire Internet must know by now, I'm trying to decide between the iPhone 4 and Nexus One. I like Android, but I don't like the Nexus One as much. I don't like iOS as much, but I like iPhone. Ah, software-hardware integration.

I like Android. I like Froyo. I like having every feature Android offers. Everything feature in Android is baked in, but the iPhone needs jailbreakers to provide them, often at a cost. Jailbreaking is infinitely more difficult than unlocking the N1 bootloader, and I prefer having the internet as a portal as opposed to Cydia. As impressive as Cydia is for iOS, it's slower than having something like xda-developers or Google to look for good apps. Plus, it's real quick and simple to install apps. Mind you, I admire what Jay Freeman and the iphone-dev team have done with what Apple gave them in iOS, but I think what Google allows is simply better. USB Debug mode, allowing installation of non-Market apps, these options are priceless for smartphone owners.

I like the iPhone hardware, much like I liked the MacBook. I'm not particularly partial to iOS or OSX, but I don't mind them. I really like Windows 7 and Android, so what is a brother to do? The N1's screen is slow and laggy. Typing can be quicker, but it's finicky and temperamental. I truly adore the Android keyboard's autocorrect. I didn't really try any of the custom keyboards, but they're probably great. I couldn't get Swype to work, but I didn't try too hard either. Nevertheless, the overall performance and integration of the touchscreens with their underlying software is what matters. I don't know what it is with the N1 and Android 2.2 FRF91 MCR, but it's laggy. I don't like iOS as much because of what we have to deal with in the 21st century, but I can text my baby much easier.

I wonder if I'll miss Android too much if I go back to the iPhone. The iPhone uses an ARM processor, right? Someone please get Android on iPhone 4. I'd gladly pay for that. Maybe I should donate a bit.

More Nexus One Thoughts

Allo there, mates,

I don't like the idea of writing a review, so I'm going to keep spilling my thoughts and impressions on bits of scrap blog posts.

- I originally thought that the N1 had crappy battery life, but it turns out shutting off auto-sync for Twitter, Facebook and my Google account solved all that.

- I still don't like the touchscreen. It's not as responsive as the iPhone's, and the keyboard screws up frequently enough to bother me. It's nowhere near as good as the iPhone's which feels like the screen is absorbing your touches, drawing it out like syrup from a maple tree, eh? Typing is...different on this thing.

- I really like Android. The N1's touchscreen is beginning to bother me, but everything else about it is so awesome. Openness wins here. USB drag-and-drop, built-in rooting and unlocking, option to install non-Market applications, USB debugging, every feature missing from iOS basically handed right to you. Let me expand on this one.

• Autocorrect. It rocks. You're provided with options, and you can easily input your own words. Flaming awesome.
  
  This is a bit of a different issue, but everytime I mis-spelled "it's" in iOS, it would change to Irma. I hate Irma. I don't know who Irma is. It's obvious that I'm trying to say "it's." Get rid of Irma. Her name is too old. I don't think something like that is remedied in Android, but it bothered me so much that I thought I'd mention it.
• Contacts. Aggregated from Twitter, Facebook and Gmail contacts. Sweet. I can click on my contact's picture (oh yeah, there's that feature too), and a dialogue menu of sorts pops up with options to phone, text, find them on Google Maps if you have their address in there, or just look at their contact card. I think it's fairly easy to accomplish this in iOS, but it's even more fairly easy to do in Android. Booya. Oh yeah, you can add shortcuts to, for example, text one of your contacts directly from the home screen. I thought of that as an app idea for iOS, but look at what we've got here...
• Google Account syncing is probably one of the best things about Android. I think Google Accounts beats MobileMe easily. Gmail, Google Calendar, Picasa, YouTube, Google Talk. Where's iChat? How will Apple compete with BBM?
• Unlocking and rooting. I know jailbreak is great, but I'm continually amazed at what comes out of the unlocked-and-rooted community (I'm not sure how to refer to it). Google basically trades root and unlock for your warranty, and you get to do everything possible with your phone. SBSettings is already built-in, though you can extend its power with a rooted app. I just changed the boot animation to this. I also have a multi-coloured trackball that lights up to any colour I choose and blinks at any rate I choose. Talk about control. And that's just a simple little app too. I need more time to explore, but I think that rooting beats jailbreaking. Give me more time to decide.
• Browser. It's so weird to have Flash on my phone. It feels like I have Google Chrome on my phone. The browser is slick and fast. I like its responsiveness. Plus, I can surf Digg.com and Cracked.com without hesitation.

- I use my phone mostly for texting my baby. We'll be long-distance for at least another year and a half, so I need a phone that types well. I wonder how I'd feel if I went back to iOS just for the typing capability. One could argue that the autocorrect and custom dictionary beat out the touchscreen anyways. Oooh, it's getting harder and harder to leave Android.

I could go on, but I'm distracted at the moment. I'm gonna go play Modern Warefare 2 now.